Your Occasional Pope

In which we learn that Papa Francesco knows what's important, including a "green agenda."

One of the worst things done by the two immediate predecessors of Papa Francesco was the fact that they went out of their way to knuckle American nuns. Well, he doesn't have time for that nonsense any more.

Notably, the document did not contain any disciplinary measures or new oversight for the LCWR, nor did it express any admission of error on either side. For its part, the LCWR agreed to promote more scholarly rigor and theological accuracy in its writings and programs. An accompanying press release quoted Sister Sharon Holland, president of the LCWR and a former Vatican official, saying that the process brought "deeper understandings of one another's experiences, roles, responsibilities, and hopes for the church and the people it serves."

The meeting, which the Vatican detailed on its website late Tuesday (April 14), is another sign of Pope Francis' "green agenda" and another potential red flag for conservatives who are already alarmed over an expected papal teaching document on the environment that is scheduled for release this summer. The one-day summit on April 28 will also include participants from major world religions and aims to "elevate the debate on the moral dimensions of protecting the environment in advance of the papal encyclical," as the papal document is known. Another goal, says a statement on a Vatican website, is to highlight "the intrinsic connection between respect for the environment and respect for people — especially the poor, the excluded, victims of human trafficking and modern slavery, children, and future generations."

On Jan. 3, Robert P. George assured readers at First Things that they could safely ignore whatever the pope might say about climate change because his arguments would be based on contestable empirical claims about which Francis possesses no special expertise.

As opposed, I guess, to the special expertise on human sexuality possessed by the celibate author of Humanae Vitae. Honky, please.